1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to robotic arms, and more particularly, to a Support arm with brake mechanism.
2. Description of Related Art
Mechanical arms are in wide use in the industrial sector, because they perform plenty tasks which are not manually doable, including highly difficult and dangerous tasks, such as moving, welding, cutting, and assembling, as well as any tasks not supposed to be performed manually.
There is related prior art. For instance, US 2007/0001076 discloses: a flexible element is disposed between a support arm and a resilient element; the flexible element pulls or pushes a first pulley to increase or decrease a restoring force of the resilient element in the course of the operation of the support arm, such that the resilient supporting force of the resilient element varies in response to the operation of the support arm. Furthermore, US 2011/0260017 discloses: a resilient component is disposed between upper and lower links; and an end of the resilient component is attached to a drag link to enable automatic adjustment of a resilient support force provided by the resilient component as a support arm is moved between upper and lower vertical positions.
The aforesaid two published patent applications have a disadvantage in common, that is, although the support arm is capable of moving up and down in order to move an object, the support arm lacks a positioning function, and in consequence the support arm cannot fasten the object steadily after moving the object to a predetermined position, thereby compromising any subsequent operation.